The present invention relates to apparatus for continuously winding filamentary material such as wire on to rotating spools and in particular to apparatus in which the winding of said material can be automatically transferred from one take up spool to another.
The known apparatus for winding wire-like material is exemplified in German patent publication No. 1574357 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,229 and German patent publication No. 1774266 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,844 wherein a pair of take up spools are arranged, each coaxially with an auxiallary spool and a loop forming excursion device. These arrangements are firstly quite complicated structurally and secondly difficult to operate and not completely safe, particularly when there is a jamming of the wire necessitating the cleaning of the catcher blade. In addition, since the respective take up and auxillary spools are mounted on the same cantilevered rotating shaft, the increase in size of the take up spool, normally at the free end of the shaft so that it can be removed, changes the center of gravity relative to the shaft bearing so that it is not possible to wind large and heavy spools at high speeds of rotation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide winding apparatus which is simpler in design and structure then the prior devices.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a winding apparatus which is easy to operate, requires little maintenance and which is economical to build and to use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide winding apparatus for extremely thin wire making it possible to wind wire of indefinite substantially endless length, of any chosen length, even where the length is obtained by welding successive pieces end to end.
These objects as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will be obvious from the following disclosure.